For the first time since late December, the Warriors have won consecutive games.
It's hard to express how disastrous the last month was for Golden State, but with Friday's 121-101 win in Memphis, they begin the month of February with a step in the right direction.
Jonathan Kuminga steamrolls Memphis
The performance from Jonathan Kuminga in the second quarter was nothing short of dominant, and downhill.
He went right after the Grizzlies all night. In transition, he was an absolute nightmare. At one point in the second quarter, he had 13 of the last 18 Warriors points.
It culminated with a picture-perfect poster over Grizzlies forward Tosan Evbuomwan, who, despite being a Princeton alum, did not have the smarts to clear the landing zone for Kuminga.
Kuminga remained aggressive into the fourth quarter, and finished with a team-high 29 points (11-of-15), 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. It's his eighth-straight 20-plus point game.
He is playing intelligent, consistent basketball, and has become the driving force for them at times when they were prone to falling asleep at the wheel.
Podziemski with a career-high assist tally
Also deserving of plaudits in this game was Brandin Podziemski. While he went through some lulls a couple weeks ago, he has returned with energy and impact.
His ability to distribute on Friday was outstanding, and it manifested in a career-high and near triple-double.
The rookie finished with 12 points (5-of-8), 7 rebounds, 14 assists, 2 steals, a block, and no turnovers. When he is able to provide energy without turning the ball over, and find teammates, it's a monumental boon to the second unit.
When the second unit can trust its young players to play cohesive basketball, it takes the onus off Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson (34 combined points on 12-of-31 shooting), who were lackluster Friday night.
Where this puts the Warriors
Let's not get carried away with this team. This was a win against the corpse of the Memphis Grizzlies, a ghost ship of whatever their front office can scrounge together while the likes of Ja Morant, Marcus Smart, Desmond Bane and Brandon Clarke remain out.
That said, the Warriors lost to this same, horrific Grizzlies team a couple weeks ago. Golden State is still shorthanded and will take any win they can get while they wait for the returns of Moses Moody (imminent), Gary Payton II and Chris Paul.
It puts the Warriors (21-24), now tied with the Houston Rockets and a half-game back of the Utah Jazz (24-26).
The Jazz are the target. As horrible as this first half of the season has been, Golden State could theoretically split the rest of their road trip (four games), win one against either the Suns and Clippers at home, and still gain ground and jump into the play-in picture by beating the Jazz twice before the All-Star Break on February 12 and 15. Maybe that's far-fetched.
That would put them at 26-27, which is a deeply uninspired, mediocre record. But it would give Golden State at least a season tie with Utah and allow them to get even healthier in a week off.
Again, this is all theoretical. But as the February 8 trade deadline gets closer and the Warriors have played better with Draymond Green (9 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks) back in the lineup, it seems more and more likely they stick with what they have.
This is all to say that there is least a route where the Warriors are back in the play-in picture before the final two months of the season.
This team does not seem at likely to make a run, but there are a lot of bad opponents left on the slate after the All-Star Break (nine games against the Hornets, Spurs, Rockets, Grizzlies, Wizards and Trail Blazers). They have the fifth-easiest schedule remaining after Friday.
Weirder things have happened than some championship winners getting healthy and hot at the right time, and wreaking havoc (which does not mean winning a title) down the stretch. That doesn't seem likely, but... it cannot be ruled out.
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